Abstract:

The objective of the present article is to propose a way to activate and encourage students’ desire to invest effort in the English learning activity by establishing a positive learning environment. The lack of motivation of teenage students has several causes that can be attributed both to internal factors as external ones. Accordingly, in order to find out pertinent methodologies for improving students’ participation during English classes and construct a suitable classroom management strategy, the researcher analyzed different documents such as the official ones pertaining to the involved school, as well as works from several authors that have studied the topic (Dörnyei, 1998; Epperson& Rossman, 2013; Harmer, 2007;Scrivener, 2005; Ur, 2012). A survey was undertaken to an 11thgrade of a private school located in Santiago, and it is composed of 19 teenagers aged 16 to 17. The results thereof show that the students do not feel sufficiently motivated to learn English, and the topics taught in classes are not of their interest. Consequently, classroom management is understood as developing proactive ways to create a positive learning environment and developing good rapport to contribute to effective teaching. The lessons plan includes topic of students’ interest and activities fostering students’ participation and rapport. Finally, the results of these new strategies are shown and recommendations are made.